Chapter Text
Being one of the janitors at SDN wasn’t for the faint of heart. Especially when most of the janitors had helpful powers like water manipulation or minor telekinesis while Y/n had the ability to wilt plants. Not really something the landscapers would appreciate from her, and useless inside the building. Her job was made especially hard by the fact that she was usually assigned to clean the area where the Z-team worked. Some fucker kept microwaving twinkies and leaving the sticky fluff for her to clean. She also kept finding mice in the work fridge, which was pretty unsanitary. Though the last time she threw those away and scrubbed down the inside of the fridge she received a very passive-aggressive note on the janitor’s closet door. She supposed this was the retribution she deserved, and preferred. She’d rather fix IT problems and mop the bathrooms than go to jail for fraud. She’d leaped at the opportunity when Blonde Blazer presented it, and SDN was keen on hiring her as well. Not many people were eager to clean up after heroes that regularly set things on fire, like Flambae. Or accidentally crush the floor tiles like Golem. And none of the people that worked there were very set on spending their free time playing maid after they already went on missions.
Which was how she ended up cleaning a completely trashed and burnt breakroom table up. Someone had sprayed perfume with a particularly high alcohol content near an already fuming Flambae, and the consequences had been disastrous. Her favorite swivel chair had been burnt as well, which was a bummer. It was the only one left that didn’t awkwardly squeak at the slightest movement. The vending machine had caught a bit of the heat, but it was only scorched at a corner so it should be fine. The table, though, was going to be quite costly to replace. Maybe the SDN would invest in one that was a bit more flame retardant. In the meantime, they’d have to make do with a couple empty desks she’d crudely shoved together.
After the hour and a half that it had taken her to dispose of the burnt remains, she decided to take her lunch break. She deserved something good to snack on. Unfortunately for her, Sonar had also decided to take his lunch break then. There was nothing she really had against him, but she’d overheard him once talking to Robert about his alpha-male hormones and had subsequently decided to limit their interactions. She didn’t want to think about the Reddit threads he might be on. Largely ignoring his presence, she bought a bag of chips from the vending machine and leaned against the counter to eat it. He opened the fridge and let out a little screech that made her flinch. No matter how many times he did that, she could never get used to it. He pulled a container out of the fridge and opened it, taking out a mouse.
Oh. So it was him. Well… she couldn’t really decide if it was speciest or not to scold him for leaving that in the fridge, factoring in his hybrid side. And it was in a closed container, so she decided not to say anything about it.
“Are you staring me down in a sexy way or in a way that’s supposed to be threatening? Because I can work with both.” Sonar spoke, drawing her out of her thoughts and making her realize that she had in fact been staring him down. “Oh- sorry, I was just… thinking. Realized that you were the one leaving mice in the fridge. Not that it’s a bad thing or anything! I just was wondering who it was at the office, and how sanitary it was, but it’s not gross ‘cause it’s in a closed container so you’re fine to keep bringing them.” She rambled, startled at having been caught and confronted by this guy she’d never spoken to before. Did she come off as rude? God, she hoped not. She didn’t want to seem like an asshole, it’s not like he can control what he eats. Well, maybe he can since he looks human except for the head, but he probably prefers the taste. Wait, do bats eat mice? Well obviously fruit bats don’t and he doesn’t look like a fruit bat anyways. Gray bats eat bugs. Maybe a vampire bat? He had fangs like one too, so probably that.
“Cool.” Was all she got as a response before he turned his back to her to eat his food. Shit. Was he offended? He said it really flatly. But his voice is normally monotone so she couldn’t tell. She came off as an ass, didn’t she? Well now she had to find a way to apologize. Maybe a food basket? She could get those pinky mice from the reptile store. Or did he source his somewhere special? Would he see it as a further insult if she gave him those? Maybe she could get him cologne. But then he might think she’s suggesting that he smells bad. She could get him a new tie, but she’s only ever seen him wear the same red one so he probably wouldn’t like it. Maybe he wasn’t offended. His eyes didn’t have pupils and it was really hard to differentiate his forehead fur from where his eyebrows are supposed to be so she had no way to read his expression apart from the position of his eyelids and mouth. Well now she was staring again and that’s what got her into this in the first place.
She looked away and threw the rest of her bag of chips in the trash. She was too anxious to eat now and she wanted to flee the room anyways, so she went back to work. It was times like this that she was glad she was a janitor because cleaning always seemed to make the time fly and she could focus on the task instead of her thoughts. She would ask Robert at the end of her shift what he liked, and then she’d buy him that and apologize. Even if he turned out to not be upset, it would be a good way to build common ground and break into the dynamic with her coworkers. Yeah. She’d do that and not spend the rest of her shift anxious and biting her nails at the thought of pissing off Sonar when he was just trying to enjoy his lunch.